It is well known that painting operations often require masking of certain portions of the surface of the painted object to prevent overspray. For example, it is often necessary to mask trim and windows on a vehicle (e.g. a motor vehicle) from paint overspray. Also, building stucco must frequently be protected from paint or primer coats. On occasion, it is necessary to mask painted portions of a vehicle or building from paints of a different color and overspray of paints of the same color. In addition, it is often desired to protect the surfaces (e.g. floors or walls) of the area (e.g. paint spray booth) in which the overcoating (e.g. painting) operation is performed.
In practice, masking operations are often one of the most time consuming and, therefore, expensive parts of the painting process. In spite of attempts to develop suitable chemical masks for vehicle painting, vehicle painters continue to use primarily masking tape and paper to cover portions of a vehicle where paint is not desired. To mask the trim on a car, for example, will often require many hours of tedious labor. Furthermore, even when done carefully, defects in such paint masks allow paint to contact surfaces that are desired to be protected.
Chemical masking solutions have been proposed to the problem of protecting surfaces during coating processing operations. However, such techniques have often not found extensive use. Some of the proposed chemical masks have been unsuitable for application to portions of a vehicle or building because of damage which would potentially occur to the protected portions of the vehicle or building. Other compositions are not water-soluble which increases the difficulty and expense of removal. In addition, masks that require solvents for removal are problematic in view of the increasing regulation of disposal of solvents as environmental regulation becomes stricter with time. Other compositions are difficult to apply, difficult to remove, excessively costly, or the like.
From the above it is seen that an improved masking that is easily applied and removed, that provides good surface protection, that is economical, and whose use entails little or no environmental impact is needed.